--Rabbi Isaac further said:  Four things cancel the doom of man, namely, charity, supplication, change of name, and change of conduct.

                                                                        --Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16b

When she was six years old

her sister took her to the American school

where the teacher asked her name.

Her sister told the teacher,

"Nechamah Leah" and the teacher said,

"Emma," so she named herself

"Emalene."  From that moment

 

she created herself, an original woman.

Third daughter of immigrants, she

went to college, taught, became

a businesswoman, sold women's dresses

 

to schoolteachers, raised

three children, was proud of

eleven grandchildren.  Instead of Comfort,

 

Emalene created action, turned a profit, yelled at her husband,

told stories.  At ninety-five

the Angel of Death came looking for her

in a sixth-floor hospital room

with a window overlooking her schoolyard.

"Nechamah...Nechamah..." he called

 

but Emalene

didn't recognize the name, couldn't answer

to promises of Comfort,

lay in pain for weeks, fingers and toes

turning black for lack of blood,

averting the doom of man

until (the day before Rosh Hashanah)

 

she could no longer forget her name.